Class Acts

Talk to these smart kids, these double-threat students who excel in both athletics and academics, and you learn that school doesn’t necessarily come any easier to them than anyone else.

No, they all have to study like crazy to keep the B’s on Red Sox caps and not their report cards.

What sets them apart is a need to do well at whatever they try and an understanding of what’s important and what it takes to succeed. The hard work that allows them to do well in sports is the same thing that helps them succeed in the classroom.

Want proof? Meet Olivia Jankins, a field hockey and basketball star at Quaboag Regional. The 5-foot-6 sophomore says sports come easier to her than schoolwork, but she has can’t recall ever getting anything but an A on a report card

She gets home from field hockey practice, eats supper, then does homework for a few hours — every night. The structure of sports and school and the need to stick to a strict schedule helps her. She finds the spring when she’s not playing a sport more difficult, too easy to get distracted.

“When you have to stick to a schedule, it’s easier,” said Jankins, who played a key role in Quaboag’s back-to-back appearances in the state field hockey final and has been on the basketball team since eighth grade. “I like plans.”

Damola Ogungobi, cross country and basketball captain at Abby Kelley Foster Charter School, balances sports and academics with music — she’s in the choir and school band — and a part-time job. She’s up at 5 a.m., helping her brother and sister get ready for school, and often doesn’t get to bed until 1 a.m. She’s already taking a full schedule of college courses, too, part of a program at Quinsigamond Community College for top high school students.

“I’ll tell you, it’s really tiring sometimes,” she said.

Sure it is, but she and other top student-athletes have goals to achieve and work to do.

Matt LaBove, who will captain the St. John’s basketball team this winter, a rare honor for a junior, wants to be a doctor.

The 6-foot-8 (and still growing) center has already received letters from Ivy and Patriot League schools who are interested in his basketball skills and know that he can meet their rigid academic requirements.

His goal is to go to Notre Dame, the alma mater of his parents, Charles and Pamela LaBove.

“If you have good grades, you can go to any school you want,” he said.

And if you’re 6-8 (and still growing) and can play basketball, ...

LaBove doesn’t view success in the classroom and in sports as mutually exclusive.

“If you’re a smart kid, you’re going to be intelligent on the basketball court,” he said.

If winning is important to you in sports, excelling the classroom can bring the same kind of rush.

“I think (St. John’s) is very competitive athletically, but surprisingly it’s more competitive academically,” LaBove said. “Everyone is going at each other to get the best grades. It’s fun.”

His favorite subject is history and least favorite is math. Jankins, who wants to study business in college, likes math most and history least.

What they have in common are parents who have taught them the value of a good education and expect them to do well

Jankins’ father, Michael, is a financial analyst, and her mother, Maureen, a microbiologist.

“They’re a really big influence,” Jankins said. “They agree that school comes first. They are very smart.”

Jankins and LaBove aren’t the only students who prove every day that “dumb jock” is just a dumb stereotype.

Here is a sampling of some others:

This three-sport captain (football, basketball, baseball) has a 4.58 GPA and is ranked second in his senior class.

He has applied to Boston College, Vermont, New Hampshire and Villanova and would someday like to work in advertising and marketing.

His motivation for doing so well in school is his brother, Brennan, who was class valedictorian at Northbridge and now goes to BC, where he is a walk-on member of the basketball team.

“I think having my older brother be as successful as he was, he sort of paved the path for me,” Bennett said.

Ranked third in a senior class of 493 students, the Blue Devils’ quarterback is considering Bowdoin College and Brown University. His favorite subject is biology, and he would someday like to be a doctor.

He believes that his academic standing is a result of his hard work more than anything else.

“It takes responsibility to know what you’re supposed to do,” said Kittredge, who also plays hockey.

A captain in girls’ soccer, Lemmerman also runs the mile, 800 and is part of the Tomahawks’ 3,200-relay team.

She is ranked fourth in her senior class and is hoping to attend Tufts University and major in engineering. Math and science are her favorite subjects.

Lemmerman says the dumb jock stereotype isn’t true at all with most of the girls on her teams taking as much pride in their academic accomplishments as their athletic ones.

She says the key to her success in sports (cross country, basketball) and academics is determination.

She served an internship at UMass Memorial Medical Center, University Campus, over the summer in the biotech lab and wants to study biomedical engineering in college, possibly at Brown University.

“I really like building things,” she said.

Ogungobi is already getting some of her college courses out of the way, taking a full academic load at Quinsigamond Community College as part of a program at that school for top high school students.

She says some of the students at her high school are jealous about how little time she has to spend in the classroom at QCC until she tells them about how much work she has to do for each course.

Ranked fifth in his senior class, the two-way lineman and track star wants to play football in college and is looking at Bryant, Holy Cross and Princeton. He would like to someday coach college football.

“Football and school are two of the most important things to me,” he said. “I love the game of football, and I value my education. I know that I can’t play football unless I have good grades, which is why every night after practice I go home and get my work done.”